Why Shanghai Tower Failed

Narrated by Fred Mills. Additional footage and images courtesy of Carlos Barria, Adrian Smith, Gensler Design, Shen Zhonghai, Blackstation and Connie Zhou.

#construction #architecture #skyscrapers

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[zhewu]

as a citizen of Shanghai, I didn't even know people could live and work on the tower. I always thought it was built for good-looking. The funny thing is that while I'm typing, I can see the tower from my window.

[Freight_Train]

The original world trade centers were hard to fill up with occupancy for similar reasons. I don't know about One World Trade Center, but I grew up with the Twin Towers and visited them a few times as a kid and always heard my uncle talk about how they were losing money because companies were not moving in. This would have been in the 70s and 80s.

[vinc]

The thing next to the tower looks like a giant bottle opener.

[joseph]

The Empire State Building was completed during the early 1930s, and was mostly empty for several years. At opening there was pretty much only 1 tenant above 7th floor, and for almost the entire decade there wasn't even elevator service past floor 40 other than for the observation deck. The building wasn't profitable until the 1950s. I could see a similar situation for this building.

[davidscholz]

Failed completely economically, but is still a marvel of engineering.

[raoul]

It's like my minecraft house: Incredibly huge and majestic on the outside, but too big for anything I own on the inside.

[loui]

I’ve been to Shanghai and this building was stunning from an aesthetic perspective. The fact that it disappears into the clouds on a hazy day also makes it quite beautiful.

[pw]

I went up to the observation deck and it was an awesome experience.

[lu]

The title almost sounded like you meant failure from an engineering standpoint...And if I'm not mistaken all you wanted to say was that rent is too high

[cchampa]

skyscrapers are the epitome of "just because you can; doesn't mean you should."

[steve-marsh]

The transformation of skyline images from 1987 to 2013 was quite remarkable!

[carewser]

Compared to the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, this building is a huge success

[jman]

“Megatall” skyscrapers like the Burj Khalifa are not completely habitable. In fact, the top 37% of the Burj is uninhabitable for structural and design reasons. Of the 63% that is usable, 20% of the residential space is empty along with 50% of the office space. These towers are icons more than anything.

[hairharbor]

To be fair the Empire State building was known as the "Empty State Building" for its first decade or two.

[rednalyx]

I coincedentally explored Shanghai yesterday in Google Maps and was impressed by its insane scale

[cgong]

Expensive Landmarks. The old Chinese saying goes with “when things reach the extreme they start to go the opposite direction.”

[corvusglaive]

These supertall structures are not usually constructed for their economical sense. If people used economic logic to make decisions on buildings then the world would have very few skyscrapers. Most of these supertall towers are all about a sense of pride for the country and city.

[Ivan_Ardon]

I lived in Shanghai until recently. The key fact not mentioned here is that there are great concerns about its structural integrity. The ground that it is built on is in fact very soft and therefore is prone to leaning. Several of the buildings nearby have been proven to have tilted and the local government refused to allow tests to be taken to see the latest angle of lean. That scared away many of the businesses.

[AnixCo]

It’s just like when the Empire State Building opened, it was initially called the empty state building and remained unprofitable till the 1950s

[scriptly]

As a citizen who lives less than 3 miles away from the tower, I have been in the building several times. The building is one of the emptiest and loudest in the district. I've been in one of the small scaled cafes in the building. I can't remember clearly but the cafe was on around the 100th floor. Every 3-4 minutes, an elevator would pass by the cafe causing an extremely loud noise lasting around 2 seconds. The noise would shake the building intensely, causing a small earthquake in the building.